Recycling e-Waste: The Sky is the Limit

The world generates 40 million tons of PCs, cathode-ray tube screens, fax machines, game consoles, mobile phones and other e-waste every year and less than 20% of this waste is properly disposed of or recycled. In many parts of the world, these electronics are stripped of their precious metals and the unusable parts are dumped in landfills to poison the soil and groundwater. 
China is the largest processor of e-waste receiving 70% of the world's end-of-life electronics. Guiyu is nicknamed the e-waste capital where workers burn circuit boards to recover computer chips, then soak the boards in acid to extract gold and lastly dump the leftovers into the Lianjiang River. This burning releases massive quantities of mercury, cadmium and other toxins into the air and most children here suffer from lead poisoning.   
The Basel Action Network(BAN) is working to cease the export of toxic waste to developing countries, but when recycling a PC in the US costs $30 verses recycling it in China for $2, countries unfortunately go for the cheaper option. Instead, recycling companies in the US will charge for each PC to be disposed of then ship it overseas as 'scrap metal' to workers who are underpaid and unaware of the health affects of the chemicals these electronics possess. 
The European Waste Electrical Directive law put responsibility for the disposal of e-waste to the producers, importers and retailers of the electronic good, so that companies are compelled to take back end-of-life products and refurbish them. But a law such as this is very difficult to enforce. Sony became the first electronics company to offer unlimited free take-back and recycling for all its products and I hope more companies will follow its example.
Most reputable e-waste recyclers are ISO 14000 certified. The ISO 14000 are environmental standards created to guide organizations in minimizing their operations affect on air, water and land. It takes in how a product is produced rather than the product itself such as labeling, performance evaluation, life cycle analysis, communication and auditing. 
The ultimate goal for e-waste recycling is for zero to land in the landfills and 100% recovery of materials. A typical PC contains 23% plastic, 32% ferrous material, 18% non-ferrous material and 12% electronic boards made of gold, palladium, silver and platinum. Recycler shredders use heavy duty shredders that reduce the e-waste into uniform rough pieces that are then sorted. This sorting has been found to be profitable. In LCD mobile phones, the rare metal indium can be recovered and sells anywhere between $700/kg to $1,000/kg. 
New ways to more efficiently recycle are continuing to be invented such as the Titech X-tract Seperator and Finder. X-tract sends x-rays through unsorted nonferrous metal shreds and sorts the material by comparing the relative brightness of the x-ray images. Japanese electronics maker NEC is also experimenting with bioplastic that would degrade in 7 years. 
China is switching from building technology parks to recycling parks that have attracted 22 recycling companies. They are doing aluminum harvesting, processing of computer chips, cables, motherboards for gold, silver and metal harvesting and all leftovers go into making cement. A 90% recovery system and a model for how e-waste recycling can be done in the future.  

Krikke, Jan. "Recycling e-Waste:The Sky is the Limit." IT Professional Magazine. Jan 2008: 50-55. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/206326082?accountid=14679>.

E-Waste Recycling

Technology is getting better and better all the time, at least that's what we are led to believe.  Computing power is increasing, size is decreasing, and electronics have now pervaded into every nook and cranny of our lives, from our cars, to our coffee makers, to our computer screens.  As is with life, all things that live will eventually die, and this is no different with technology.  In the past, malfunctioning electronics were built to last lifetimes, and if they were to fail, they could be easily repaired.  As it happens, this is no longer the case.  We now live in a culture which cherishes nothing but the newest tech, and our old tech is literally designed to fail (planed obsolescence).  Much of our electronics are nearly impossible to repair as well, so we are faced with the decision to either toss it in the landfill, or bring it to a recycling center.  I'd first like to detail exactly what happens to the recycled electronics, then give an overview of other options available for end of life electronics (For a more specific case study, see my previous post on microwaves in the U.K)

Recycling (end of life) (Reclaiming materials)

WHY DO IT?  

1. Recycling is done primarily to Reclaim valuable materials (Gold, Silver, Cooper, Aluminum, and Palladium), and is generally a safer alternative and better for environment than mining for these materials
2.  Prevents Pollutants from entering the waste stream
3. Can save money for companies who have take-back programs

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

1.  Snip cables, pull chips from boards, grind plastic cases into particles, dip circuit boards into acid baths to dissolve lead, cadmium and other toxic metals, strip insulation from copper wire 

Circuit board dis-assembly (China)

Open pit burning

  PROBLEMS/ISSUES

1. If recycled properly, the environment will be kept more clean than if e-waste was placed in a landfill
2. Lack of laws (U.S. has not ratified the Basel Convention or its Ban Amendment) so there are limited laws regulating export of e-waste overseas     80% of all e-wasted slated to be recycled is not recycled here, but is exported 
3. The exported e-waste goes to countries with limited health and environmental laws, so much of this e-waste is recycled improperly i.e. circuit boards are burned in open pits, releasing toxins and plastics into the open air, dissolving circuit boards causes groundwater pollution due to leaching (lead poisoning common in e-waste recycling areas in developing countries
4. Low wages, limited laws and valuable parts increase the chance/incentive e-waste will be exported to developing countries
5. Refurbishing old components is a threat to manufacturing – incentive for corporations to quell any recycling/refurbishing effort 

SOLUTIONS

1.      Some corporations recycle (Best buy, Staples)

2.      Some corporations fix (Apple)

3.      Pressure manufacturers to use less toxic materials in their processes

4.      BASEL CONVENTION = BANS OVERSEAS EXPORTS

5.      WORLD REUSE, REPAIR, and RECYCLING ASSOCIATION = FAIR TRADE EXPORTS – export only good CRT monitors directly to reuse factories.  “If used electronics exports are outlawed, only outlaws will export used electronics

6.      “WEEE TRACE project” – Uses radio-frequency tagging or image recognition to track e-waste – hopes to crack down on illegal exports

E-Waste Reuse

Re-use/Re-purpose

• Reusing/re-purposing electronics extends life of products and keeps valuable materials from entering waste stream

• Donating working electronics helps schools, nonprofit orgs, and lower income citizens, tax reduction for donation

In my previous post on the microwave study, the authors suggested several manufacturing techniques that would make repair much more feasible.  However, if the old electronics are beyond repair there are many other options out there to consider before throwing it in the trash or recycling it

Re-purpose

Old TV = Dog bed

MacBook = Light fixture

OR here's something I did with an old 1980's era electric organ.  I took wired and circuits from the inside of the organ, and used them to create this light sensitive primitive synth.  Check it out in the following videos

This video encompasses the way Dell has/is attempting to be as sustainable as possible. The main part I was focused on when viewing the video was when they talked about shipping the products. They use recycled materials such as detergent and milk containers and as little boxes as possible to lessen the shipping load. By lessening the shipping load it leaves less room for unrecyclable materials. Dell isn't the only company doing this type of sustainability, I believe many other companies do as well. The reason they do this because they may otherwise lose consumers and they are more interested in where they're technology is going to go after it has died. Consumers have become much more interested in where things come from and where they will be going then they were a couple of years ago and because of this many companies have had to enhance their sustainability to make customers happy.

Sarah Silver

Citation:
Dell, , dir. Sustainability: Dell's Lifecycle Approach. YouTube, 2012. Film. 1 Dec 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG7Vea3PdiM.

Laws/Regulations of Shipping Technology

Here is a link that goes over every possible detail of what can be shipped, how it can be shipped and what it has to go through before actually getting into the country:

http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/trade/iius.ctt/iius.pdf

I'm going to summarize the most important part which is the shipping of technology. Certain technologies give off radiation such as TVs, microwaves, cellphones, etc. Because of this the Food and Drug Administration require both parties, the people sending the technology and those receiving the technology, to file a form called the FDA 2877. This form is required for technologies manufacture in the United States and shipped into the United States. This document doesn't only focus on technology, it focuses on everything that can be shipped into the United States and what importers and exporters need to do in order for everything to run smoothly.

Sarah Silver

Citation:
United States. Customs and Border Protection. Importing into the United States: A Guide for Commercial Importers. 2003. Web. http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/trade/iius.ctt/iius.pdf.

Small Informal Interview

On Wednesday November 20th I conducted a small very informal interview with a woman who works at the UVM bookstore. She is responsible for the ordering and knowledge of when particular technologies would arrive. The bookstore was also extremely convenient and the visit was easy to carryout. Here are a few questions I asked her:
Question: So the UVM bookstore sells both Dell and Apple, do either of these products come from the United States? As in are they manufactured and shipped in the United States?
Answer: Dell is manufactured in Texas, at the large headquarters. From there it's transported to somewhere in the Midwest and finally it gets shipped to Vermont. Apple products are usually right from overseas.
Question: Do u know if that is just because workers are cheaper overseas or because it's easier to ship to Vermont from overseas rather than within the country?
Answer: Most likely cheaper workers.
From there this sparked my interest in looking up laws/regulations that come with shipping particular items such as technology.

Sarah Silver

Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground

Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground
This video encompasses most if not all of the impacts that e-waste has on developing countries, when we think its all being recycled. It tells a story of the people in Ghana that are stuck in a place where all they see, breathe and live within is techno trash. It is a very sad documentary, but it is also very real. It is a harsh realization of what impacts our old technologies have on children's development, adult workers, the environment, even the safety of our sacred pictures, documents, and important information that we thought we "got rid of". What I found particularly interesting was when it talked about the government documents getting into the wrong hands, and just how easy it was to do so.  I think everyone should see this video because it truly is something that at least I never considered happened to the things I threw out. Americans and really everyone who owns technology should be aware of all of the negative affects that we have on other people's lives.

Citation:
"Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground." Youtube. Youtube:PBS, 4 Dec. 2011. Web. Nov. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1oyFaOpJOo>.